EVERGREEN AND COSCO IN JOINT ASIA/AUSTRALIA SERVICES

EVERGREEN AND COSCO IN JOINT ASIA/AUSTRALIA SERVICES    Evergreen Marine Corp. and COSCO Container Lines, the liner arm of the China Ocean Shipping Co. group, will merge their services between Asia and Australia.
   From mid-April the two carriers will start running two weekly services in this trade, subject to the approval of the relevant authorities.
   Hanjin Shipping and Regional Container Lines will take slots on the joint Evergreen/COSCO services.
   The new service pattern of Evergreen and COSCO will comprise two loops.
   The North Asia Express service, using five ships of between 1,100-TEU and 1,400-TEU capacity, is expected to call at Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Pusan, Kaohsiung, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tokyo.
   The Sino-Australia Service would have a rotation of Shanghai, Huangpu, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hong Kong and Shanghai and will utilize five 1,400-TEU vessels.
   The port rotations and schedules for the two services have not been finalized.
   Evergreen said that it will withdraw from its existing “NAE” joint services with Hanjin and Regional Container Lines in the Asia/Australia trade, but will continue to take space on their “ASA” joint service.
   The Asia/Australia service agreement between Evergreen and COSCO represents an extension of the cooperation between the Taiwanese and mainland Chinese shipping groups. Evergreen and COSCO already cooperate in the Asia/South Africa/East Coast of South America trade, while Evergreen affiliate Uniglory runs a joint China/Mideast service with COSCO.